Northern Hills Reads Blog - What to Read Blog

Our Mock Sibert Award

1/20/2021

We Are the Ship, Funny Bones, and An American Plague all got the Sibert Award or the Honor.

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. of Jacksonville, Illinois. -- From the Sibert Webpage of ALSC (Association for Library Services to Children)

Fifth grade students chose Honeybee as our Sibert Award winner.

Our Mock Pura Belpré Awards

1/20/2021

Just in Case, The First Rule of Punk and Dancing Hands are three books that have won the Pura Belpré Award or the honor in the past.

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. As a children's librarian, storyteller, and author, she enriched the lives of Puerto Rican children in the U.S.A. through her pioneering work of preserving and disseminating Puerto Rican folklore. -- From the Pura Belpré Award page of ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children)

The Fourth Grade students chose ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Eat! as our winner.

Their honor book was A Journey Toward Hope.

Our Mock Coretta Scott King Award

1/20/2021

The Undefeated, New Kid and Firebird are three books that have won the Coretta Scott King Award in the past.

The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given annually to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. The award commemorates the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honors his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

This year, third grade students chose Bedtime for Sweet Creatures as our
Coretta Scott King Award Winner.

Students also enjoyed You Matter, Black is a Rainbow Color and Just Like Me
and they were our honor books.

Our Mock Caldecott Awards

1/13/2021

Beekle, Radiant Child, and A Different Pond have all won the Caldecott Award or the Caldecott Honor. What is the award? "It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." -- from the Caldecott page of ALSC.

This year, second grade students at our school chose Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming & Eric Rohmann as our Mock Caldecott Winner.

The students also loved the following books that were our Caldecott Honor books: Lift by Minh Lê illustrated by Dan Santat, We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom illustrated by Michaela Goede, and Hike by Pete Oswald.

Our Mock Geisel Award Results

1/13/2021

Books that have won the award in the past.

"The Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year." -- From the Geisel Award Home Page of ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children)

First grade students at our school chose Sun Flower Lion by Kevin Henkes for our Mock Geisel Winner this year.

Swim, Mo, Swim! by David Adler illustrated by Sam Ricks, The Old Truck by Jarett Pumprey & Jerome Pumphrey, and Astrid & Apollo and the Happy New Year by VT Bidania illustrated by Dara Lashia Lee, were our Mock Geisel honor books.

Shoua Yang - Artist

11/3/2020

Some of our second grade students were able to learn about relief printing from the artist Shoua Yang. The La Crosse Community Foundation helped pay for the presentation through a Global Awareness Fund grant. It was great to learn about how his culture and experiences are reflected in his artwork. It was also exciting to learn about how he creates his artwork.

He shared that he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. You can read a book on Epic about Thailand. You can watch a video about growing up in a Thai refugee camp. There's also a cool video from Neng Now about what the camps look like now.

Here's an article about Shoua Yang.

Here's an interview with him.

Here's his business webpage Ceejv Tseg Press and there are videos showing how he creates his art.

And finally, here is a video about the mural project Shoua Yang worked on in St. Paul that he told us about in the presentation.

The Sound of Silence

3/8/2020

The Sound of Silence by Katrina Goldsaito illustrated by Julia Kuo

College students from Fukuoka Japan came to visit some of our students. They are learning to be teachers. To prepare we learned a little bit about Japan and read the book The Sound of Silence by Katrina Goldsaito, illustrated by Julia Kuo.

The Japanese college students taught us how to make an origami helmet, write our names in calligraphy and taught us the Paprika dance.

To learn more about Japan - visit Kids Web Japan or Kids World Travel Guide - Japan Facts for Kids.

Watch our announcements to see more of the visit.

Our Library Twitter Account

9/30/2018

Our library has a Twitter account @NHES_LMC. The account is generally used to post the books we are reading in the LMC and to interact with authors and illustrators. Here are some examples of conversations we have had with authors. We're even getting some great bookmarks from author Ame Dyckman because of our Twitter interaction. Yay! You can look at our Twitter account even if you don't have one, but if you are a Twitter user, it's even easier. Check us out sometime when you're online.

Mai Chao Interview

9/30/2018

We were able to meet with author and artist Mai Chao for a few questions. This is the beginning of a series of interviews with people from our community. If you have ideas of people we could chat with, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

Meet Mai Chao

9/14/2018

Mai Chao is a local artist who has also published a middle grade chapter book and is working on a picture book now. Her first book is called Gathering Fireflies.

Articles about Mai Chao: La Crosse Tribune - Hometown Hero